William Thomas Manning (May 12, 1866, in Northampton, England – November 18, 1949 in New York) was an U.S. Episcopal bishop of New York.
Manning's family moved to the United States from England in 1882, where he entered the University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee) in 1888, where he worked under William Porcher Du Bose and obtained a B.D. degree in 1894.
When the Bishop was asked whether salvation could be found outside the Episcopal Church, he replied,
"Perhaps so, but no gentleman would care to avail himself of it."
Manning became deacon on December 12, 1889, and priest on December 12, 1891.
Further stations were:
One year prior to the US entering World War One Manning declared:
Our Lord Jesus Christ does not stand for peace at any price...Every true American would rather see this land face war than see her flag lowered in dishonor...I wish to say that, not only from the standpoint of a citizen, but from the standpoint of a minister of religion...I believe there is nothing that would be of such great practical benefit to us as universal military training for the men of our land.
If by Pacifism is meant the teaching that the use of force is never justifiable, then, however well meant, it is mistaken, and it is hurtful to the life of our country. And the Pacifism which takes the position that because war is evil, therefore all who engage in war, whether for offense or defense, are equally blameworthy, and to be condemned, is not only unreasonable, it is inexcusably unjust.[1]
During World War One he served as a volunteer chaplain at Camp Upton. Bishop Manning was a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur of France and an officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium.New International Encyclopedia From 1922 to 1924 he was much in the public eye on account of controversies with the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant, because of his radicalism, and with the Rev. William Norman Guthrie, because of dancing and other innovations at his religious services in St. Mark's in-the-Bouwerie, New York City.
In 1939-40 Bishop Manning took a leadership role in the successful effort to force the City University of New York to rescind their offer of a professorship to the philosopher Bertrand Russell; Russell had publicly testified of his atheism in his book What I Believe, and of his support for what was then called "free love" in Marriage and Morals. A Manhattan court granted victory to Manning's side in Kay v. Board of Higher Education, better known as The Bertrand Russell Case.
After retiring in 1946, Manning died in 1949 and is buried in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.